I’ve made this bread about a year ago, and it didn’t turn out very good, so I was not exactly thrilled to make it this weekend for the BBA Challenge. It takes three days from beginning to end, on the first day you make a pate fermentee, on the second day you make the dough and shape the bread, put it in the fridge overnight and bake next morning.
My pictures tell you two things: first, I had problems shaping the dough, instead of a nice S shape, it got kind of bulky. Second , the bread had almost zero oven spring (a term used by bakers referring to how much the bread rises during baking). My loaves ended up quite small, a problem that also happened to Paul (you can check his website following a link at the end of my post).
It tasted ok, but not great, a little too dry for my taste. I don’t think I’ll be making it again.
Check out the loaves made by my virtual friends ahead of me in the BBA Challenge:
Paul….
Oggi…
Mags…
and TxFarmer
Next in this baking journey: panettone! Looking forward to it…
Bewitching Kitchen 
Bookmarked already, Sally! I wish I had your baker’s skill 🙂
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Thanks for stopping by, Matteo. I intend to make your bread with raisins and rosemary very soon, but will use dry yeast, I have no access to fresh yeast in this neck of the woods.
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Sally I think your crumb looks fabulous! Sorry to hear that you weren’t too thrilled with this bread. Thanks for including the link to my post!
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Well, Mags… I picked the better loaf to take the photo… the other one is also cut, but I hid the cut part behind the loaf… 🙂
Very tight crumb on that one, not sure why – it proofed a little less time… maybe that was it? Bread can be so tricky!
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Wow, 3 days to make a bread you didn’t even like. I’d be so annoyed! The crumb shot looks pretty good. Nice big holes!
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Sally, seus pães sao maravilhosos. admiro muito essa sua vocação e dedicação. eu olho, olho, até pisco de inveja, mas ainda não destravei. acho pão feito em casa uma delicia, sem falar no processo que é uma terapia. e o resultado sempre motivador.
um beijo,
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Nossa, Fer… comentario mais delicioso esse seu! Thank you!!!!
Eu era mais do que travada para fazer pao, e produzi hockey pucks por anos e anos, frustradissima pelos meus pessimos resultados. Um dia peguei o touro a unha e decidi fazer uma receita so’ ate’ “dar certo”. Meu problema era muita farinha, quando acostumei com o “feel” de uma massa menos firme, tudo foi entrando nos eixos.
beijos….
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Actually, your “better loaf” is a really good looking hunk of bread! I just cut up a loaf and mine had a tighter crumb, but I really like the flavor and it’s not dry at all. This whole bread baking chemistry thing is still somewhat of a mystery – I guess that’s why it falls in both the art and science of baking!
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Sure, it doesn’t look like the one in the book, but it is a nice “S” shape! Too bad it was dry. The crumb looks amazing.
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The crumb looks amazing! Too bad you didn’t really like this bread. I liked mine a lot, even though my 3 loaves all stuck together because they had risen so much: http://ap269.wordpress.com/2010/01/11/bba-challenge-23-pane-siciliano/.
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